Times investigation: Dying for relief

The California medical board has repeatedly failed to protect patients from doctors suspected of abusing their prescribing powers, according to an LA Times investigation. The Times' examination of board records and county coroners' files from 2005 through 2011 found that At least 30 patients in Southern California died of drug overdoses or related causes while their doctors were under investigation for reckless prescribing. The medical board's president, Sharon Levine, a pediatrician who is an executive at Kaiser Permanente, declined to be interviewed.